This is a new grant application for a Research Scientist Development Award (Level I) to study the psychopharmacology of fetal alcohol effects (FAE) and to facilitate expansion of the candidate's research program on the neuropharmacology of FAE. Children born of mothers who drink alcohol during pregnancy can be afflicted with a syndrome of morphological anomolies and/or of behavioral dysfunctions ranging from profound mental retardation to hyperactivity to subtler deficits. Behavioral effects of prenatal alcohol exposure in children have been modeled reliably by administrating pregnant rats liquid diets containing different percentages of ethanol-derived calories (35% or 9% EDC), producing pups with maturational delays and deficits in activity and learning. The neurochemical bases for the behavioral effects of prenatal alcohol exposure are not well understood. The functional integrity of central nervous system neurotransmitter system in these animals will be investigated by measuring the development of behavioral responses to pharmacological agents. Specifically, the work will study the influence of prenatal alcohol on behavioral responses to drugs which influence dopamine, norepinephrine and acetylcholine systems. The particular pharmacological treatments chosen will be used because they influence measures of locomotor activity, display well-defined developmental courses, and have relatively well-understood mechanisms of action. The proposed experiments will provide important information about the functional effects of prenatal alcohol on neurotransmitter systems, may suggest possible therapeutic treatments for children with symptoms of fetal alcohol exposure and by these pharmacological challenges may reveal subtle deficits, thereby providing useful in determining the range of influence of prenatal alcohol exposure. With the opportunities provided by the RSDA, the candidate will study techniques in the teratology of alcohol and in neurochemistry necessary for the logical expansion of the research program. In summary, the proposed experiments will utilize a reliable animal model of the behavioral effects of prenatal alcohol exposure in children to study the functional integrity of neurotransmitter systems and the developmental psychopharmacology of FAE. The research will provide important information on the developmental courses of specific behaviors after prenatal alcohol exposure, on the nature of relatively specific neurotransmitter involvement in behavioral changes, or the possible diagnostic and therapeutic uses of pharmacological challenges, and will contribute to the development of the candidate as a researcher in alcohol effects.